


Absolutely. Perfect. Timing.

by Marie_Phantom



Series: Tumbleweed (Blowing In The Wind) [15]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky's Fuck Off Metal Arm, Childbirth, Loki Needs a Hug, Mpreg, Multi, Past-Miscarriage, Past-Rape, The Avengers are Good Bro's, Thor Is Not Stupid, past-torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-19 11:11:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3607977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marie_Phantom/pseuds/Marie_Phantom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Loki's children gone for the week, it's the perfect time for HYDRA to strike their final bid for revenge, what with the Tower being on constant Loki-watch and not much else.</p><p>So, of course, now would be the time when Loki goes into labour. I mean, it's not as if he's one to make the lives of the Avengers easy, is he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolutely. Perfect. Timing.

**Author's Note:**

> After this, it's one more and then the series is finished. This started out as humorous in my mind and then went angsty pretty quickly. Sorry. 
> 
> HEED THE WARNINGS. THEY ARE THERE FOR A REASON.
> 
> I have never given birth. My knowledge comes from my mother, what I have read and documentaries I have seen. Please, do NOT flame me if I get something wrong.

"It was only for a week." Fenrir had said as he packed his bags. Behind him, Jormungandr hissed and nodded. "I need to go to Germany to sort out some contracts, Jormungandr is getting cabin fever, Hela needs to make sure her Kingdom is running smoothly, and Slip needs to liaison with his agent."

"I wish you weren't going so close to the due date." Loki admitted, stroking his belly. He was a week into the twelfth month, and could go any day now. Thor hovered by his shoulder, but didn't do anything to dissuade his adopted children. He recognised the need to get away better than anyone.

"We'll be back as soon as you feel a contraction, but Mama," Fenrir smiled at him, and kissed his cheek. "You'll be fine. Liesle is staying with you just to make sure, and we'll be come back in a week. Promise."

Loki smiled weakly and leaned back against Thor's chest. Betty and Bruce, sitting at the table in the communal kitchen watched Loki with worried eyes. He was pale and bloodless. The baby's magic had increased exponentially, but only on Loki, so he couldn't even do the simplest of spells. This was unlike anything he had ever felt. In an unkind but somewhat true comparison, it was like a leech was sucking the life force from him.

He couldn't wait for the baby to be born.

Fenrir left first, then Jormungandr wrapped himself around his mother and new sibling, kissing both with a flicker of his tongue before he slithered off for the nearest river, and then the ocean. Hela flickered out of existence after she too kissed her mother, and Sleipnir, hugging tightly, took up his bags and went into the taxi with Fenrir. They were taking the same flight back to their shared house in Germany.

Liesle watched from the living room. She worried about her husband, having never got over her innate fear of small closed spaces, after her time in the cattle cars that took her to Bergen-Belsen. She had hated coming to America by plane, and had spent the entire journey either asleep or drunk.

Loki watched as his children left the building, and then had to go and sit down. The baby was battering his insides, and his stomach was now shifting visibly.

"Soon, soon, soon..." he muttered to himself under his breath. He was sick of being pregnant. This was more uncomfortable than when he had been pregnant with Fenrir.

Thor sat by his head and held his hand, thumb absently rubbing the skin in a soothing circle. Liesle came in with drinks, and Loki picked up his apple juice and pressed the cool glass to his forehead. He could have shifted, but he really didn't have the energy. 

Loki was going to give birth soon, and he honestly couldn't wait.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The first indication that something was wrong was apparent to the only person still awake at 3.30 am. Tony was working in his lab when there was a whirring sound and the central heating went out. Tony had been listening to Black Sabbath blasting through his speakers, but he noticed when the sweat started beading on his forehead.

"Huh." He said to himself and wiped a rag over his face, smearing grease. He looked at the ceiling and stood up, abandoning the baby mobile he had been soldering together. 

"JARVIS, what's up with the air conditioning?" he said. There was silence.

"JARVIS?" 

Nothing.

"JAAAAAAAARRRRVISSSSS?" Tony crooned. There was a static crackling sound.

Tony felt himself go cold and picked up a wrench. He went to his door and tried to key in the code. The door didn't open. Tony gritted his teeth and tried again. Still the door didn't open. He then walked to a window and threw the wrench through it. Normally it would have bounced off, him having shatter proof glass since Loki had thrown him through. But the windows in his private lab were still shatter proof. He climbed out and walked along the ledge. He was lucky he had built the ledge that led from his lab to the room he shared with Pepper. 

When he reached the window, he rapped on the window. Pepper woke up slowly, then gaped as she saw Tony crouching in the window, looking worried.

"Tony?" she gasped.

"Pepper, open the window manually." Tony said quietly. He looked over his shoulder, worried. Pepper leapt out of bed and opened the latched, helping Tony climb in and the closing the window behind him.

"Tony, what's going on?" she asked.

"The Tower is under attack." Tony said.

"Attack?'

Tony nodded.

"What about the suit?"

Tony shook his head. "I think there's been an EMP attack." He looked over Pepper's shoulder at her phone. It was meant to be glowing with the time, but it was dark. "JARVIS isn't working, the electrical doors aren't working."

"What about the back-up generators?" Pepper asked. Tony shook his head.

"If they haven't kicked in by now, they've been destroyed."

Pepper ran a hand through her hair and looked worriedly at the walls. "What do we do?"

Tony looked at her helplessly. "I don't know. I don't know what to do."

They stood together in fraught silence. However, before they could be set upon, the ceiling tiles moved above their heads and Clint leaned through.

"I take it you actually know what's going on." He said. He dropped to the floor, followed by Natasha and then Liesle, who didn't execute such a neat drop to the floor and slumped onto her knees, hissing in pain.

"Power's been knocked out." Tony said.

"We got that." Natasha said snidely. Tony stuck his tongue out at her, but was lightly smacked over the back of the head by Pepper. "Shouldn't JARVIS have kicked in by now?"

Tony shook his head. "Not if they were keeping the EMP pulse on a constant loop. JARVIS doesn't get to reboot if he never has a chance to actually turn on."

Liesle stood up and rubbed her knees, eyeing the ceiling with displeasure. "We couldn't have taken the stairs?" she asked sarcastically. Clint shook his head.

"They're on the stairs."

Tony went cold. "Where?" He hissed. Natasha thinned her lips.

"Last we saw, they'd got to Fenrir's floor, which is why we got Liesle out."

Lisele nodded. "Thank God Hela and Slip and Jorry are away. They've trashed the floors. Hela's going to be so pissed."

"Who are they?" Pepper asked.

There was an uncomfortable silence, before Clint took a deep breath. "HYDRA."

"What?" Tony whispered. Pepper was clutching at his arm, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, bringing her close. 

"They must have been watching the Tower, making sure that Loki's kids had gone away before they made their move. We're pretty much reduced to a skeleton force, mainly because Thor won't fight and leave Loki, Loki can't fight because he's days away from popping, Steve and Bucky at least can fight, but Bruce is out of commission because if he Hulks out and Loki goes into labour, he's fucked." Natasha checked that she had all her knives, as her spider-bites were useless with the EMP.

"Thank God you're the floor above Liesle's." Pepper said.

"Yeah, but then you get to Bruce and Betty and the medical floor, and they don't know a thing." Tony said. But Clint shook his head.

"We alerted them on the way up. They're alerting the other. We're all making out war to the communal floor. We might be safe there." He said.

Tony threw his hands in the air. "That's all very well and good, but for fucks sake, how's the whale going to fit in the ceiling? He can barely fit through the door!"

Liesle, Natasha and Clint shared a grimace, and then Liesle turned to Tony. "We're leaving that to their discretion." 

"Aaaaand on that note," Clint said, "we better get a move on. We meet on the communal floor in 5 minutes, give or take a few minutes for manoeuvrability." He knelt down and held out his hand, which Natasha hitched her foot on and then launched herself at the ceiling. He pulled herself up, and then held out her hand stop help Liesle up. Pepper followed, and then Tony with a boost from Clint before Clint then jumped and caught Natasha's hands. He pulled the tiled over the hole and then started crawling, leading the way up.

"This is fucking uncomfortable." Tony groused. He then moaned when Natasha kicked him in the head.

"Voice down!" She hissed. "They could be on the floor, and if they heard us, they'd shoot up!"

Tony mimed zipping his lips shut, and continued to crawl. 

However, he nearly revealed they location when he was drawing through a junction, and something bump his side with enough force to shove him against the side of the shaft. He flailed and was about to smack the person who had shoved him, when a lighter illuminated the tunnel and he saw it was Steve.

"You nearly gave me a fucking heart attack!" he hissed at him. Steve sneered. 

"This is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done." He heard Bucky say, and gritted his teeth at the scrape of metal on metal. He could see Bucky poke his head above Steve to see what was happening, and then he rested it on Steve's backside. Steve's eyes rolled and he flexed slightly, causing Bucky's head to bounce.

"You've been frozen." Tony reminded him. He was again kicked in the head by Natasha, and then he was slapped on the leg by Pepper behind him.

Bucky glared at him. "Yes, and this is still the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done." 

"Can we get a move on?" Clint said. He banged the metal, and it reverberated. "Or shall we break out the tea-set?"

"Don't be so snarky." Liesle said.

The continued to move through the ceiling, occasionally stopping to catch their breath. They could see where someone, probably Thor, has been battering the metal in the walls to make it bigger for Loki.

They eventually squeezed themselves out onto the floor of the communal living area, and saw that Loki was sitting down on one of the couches with Bruce in front of him, on hand on his belly. Loki was muttering to him under his breath, but they stopped and looked when the other came through the ceiling.

"Is everyone here?" Thor asked in lieu of a greeting, striding over to them. He was wearing a pair of boxers and nothing else, with Mjolnir wrapped around his wrist as a bracelet.

Pepper nodded, and Thor let out a breath and finally smiled, clapping Steve on the shoulder. Loki was sitting up, hands cradling his belly. He was dressed in a nightshirt, which was slipping off his shoulder. Bruce was the only one dressed, aside from Tony. Betty was twisting her hair up and putting a clip into it. Her eyes were only on Loki, who was grimacing every ten minutes. But the only people who noticed were Bruce, Thor and Bucky.

"We need to get word out to Coulson." Steve said, taking charge. He had his shield strapped to his back.

"Electronics have been knocked out." Tony held out his watch. "Even the clocks have stopped."

"Then how is Bucky's arm still working?" Liesle asked.

"Powered by my body, not by any external source." Bucky answered before Tony could. He flexed his arm and it clicked reassuringly. "It saves the bother of worrying if it's going to be hijacked remotely."

"This is all very well and good," Pepper interrupted, "but what are you going to do about the people invading our Tower?"

"We're armed to the teeth." Natasha said. She had so many knives attached to her that she clanked when she walked. Clint had his bow and quiver strapped to his back, and Bucky, Betty and Liesle were pulling guns out of various pockets. But they were still isolated from their mains weapons in most cases, and Loki wasn't of any use, being unable to do magic.

"We might be that, but we are under prepared and taken by surprise. To be honest, this is not working in our favour, and if it's HYDRA, then they'll do anything that they can to kill us all." Steve said. Het ouched his shield without knowing, taking solace in the reassuring metal. Bucky touched his fingertips to Steve's.

"And Loki-" Betty said, but before she could finish, there was a pounding on the door that echoed through the room. Everyone froze and stated at the door.

"We know you're all in there!" cried a voice. Steve went cold and he heard Bucky choke on his breath behind him.

"Rumlow." Bucky whispered. The fingertips which had been touching Steve's suddenly clenched his hand. Steve squeezed back.

Everyone started at the door, as they heard people pounding on it. The door was shifting slightly, as it slowly gave way.

"What do we do?" asked Liesle. Tony whipped his head around, staring at a section of wall that only he knew about.

"Follow me." He said and ran to the wall. The others followed, although Thor had to help Loki as he wobbled towards the others. Normally the sight would have been humorous, and in any other situation Tony would have laughed, but in this time humour was the last thing on his mind. They all reached the wall and Tony turned to Thor.

"Thor, I need you to reach down and feel along the floor, there." He pointed. "There should be a slight lift in the floor, a slight gap. I need you to lift the wall up."

"Up?" Thor questioned, curious.

Tony nodded. "Up." Thor released Loki, who swayed but stood tall. He leaned down and felt along the floor, finding a minuscule gap between the wall and the carpet. He heaved, and slowly the wall shifted upwards, revealing a hidden passage. Thor sweated and groaned, and behind him, Bruce and Clint kept an eye on the door. Bucky had buried his head into Steve's shoulder, shivering. Loki was now leaning heavily onto Betty's shoulder, breathing heavily and evenly.

"Arrrrrgh!" Thor groaned and with a final heave, the door slid upwards.

"Okay, everyone. Inside, now!" Tony said and led the way into the tunnel. It was dark, Pepper lit up like a candle, and everyone followed. But the door was electronically controlled, and did not slide down. 

The group ran for a minute, before they reached a room that was lit by clinical lights. "These are solar powered." Tony explained. But his words fell on deaf ears as they all say what the room contained. 

"Tony..." Bruce whispered. Tony looked pained.

"It was a good idea, just bad practice."

Inside the room was a large glass box. It was modelled of off the one that had been on the Helicarrier, and that Loki was briefly been held prisoner. 

"Inside." Tony said and strode up to it. There was a keypad, which was dead, and so Tony pried the front off and started fiddling with the wires.

"Tony, no. We can't." Clint said. Tony ignored him.

"We have to." Pepper said. Loki leaned against Thor and groaned as his belly tightened. 

"They're coming through the door." Steve said as he looked back. He pulled his shield from his back and held it in his hands. Bucky's arm rippled. 

"Got it!" Tony said as the door slid open. "Get in, now!" 

Everyone hesitated, but when they heard the crash of the metal door leading onto the communal floor giving way, Natasha was the first to run inside. They all followed, Loki practically being carried as he leaned his head back. Thor was last in the door, and as he turned he saw a man coming towards him. He was horribly scarred, and his face twisted with hatred. 

"THOR, SHUT THE DOOR NOW!" Natasha screamed. Thor grabbed the door and swung it shut. It slammed agains that frame.

"No electricity?" Liesle questioned. Tony shook his head.

"Magnets."

The crowd stood there, all gasping for air. They watched as the box was surrounded, every member of the Avengers taking a position in a circle with Betty, Liesle and Loki on the inside. 

Brock Rumlow stood in front of Steve, and grinned.

"Captain America." He said. His voice was gravelly and had to understand, like he had spent his life smoking 5 packs a day. Steve lifted his chin.

"Rumlow."

"Nice to see you're still in control of things." He sneered. His eyes danced around the others, and beside Steve, Bucky ducked his head. His lips were pressed together, and he laced his right hand through Loki's as he leaned against his back.

"We make do." Steve said.

"You'll have to. There's not going to be much air in there after a while." Rumlow sneered. Tony huffed a laugh, and Rumlow's eyes snapped on him.

"Air circulation powered by the sun, dickhead." 

Rumlow pursed his lips in irritation. "And what about water?" he asked. 

There was a pause, as they all looked at Tony. However, before he could answer, there was a crackling sound, and the glass in front of Rumlow was suddenly covered in ice. Great spiked of it, from floor to ceiling. 

"Uhh?" Clint said, but Natasha and Tony turned to Loki, whose had was blue. He was glaring at Rumlow, who had moved and was now staring at Loki with something akin to laughter on his face.

"So you have ice, so what? Is that really a pregnant man?" He said. His guards pointed and laughed, and Loki opened his mouth to reply before he groaned and doubled over.

"Shit." Liesle swore under her breath as the others turned to look at Loki. Loki was pale and sweating, his hands on his belly. He looked at Thor with wide eyes, and Thor came to his side. He held him up, and Loki latched onto his shoulder, leaning against Thor's flesh and groaning into his skin.

Tony was Clint was about to ask what was wrong, when Loki cried out and there was a splashing sound, and suddenly Loki's legs were wet.

"Oh, no." Natasha said under her breath. Loki leaned against Thor and looked at the others with eyes glazed with fear.

"No fucking way." Rumlow murmured. He leaned so close to the glass that he fogged it, and had to wipe the fog away. Everyone ignored him as they crowded around Loki.

"Now?" Clint whined. He shouldered his bow and arrows and stepped to the side, out of the puddle. 

"You can't really choose the time." Betty said. She came over to Loki and touched his back. He shivered away from her and clutched at Thor's arms.

"You can, really, but this was to be natural." Bruce said, coming over. He turned Loki in Thor's arms and had him grip Thor's hands. He touched the bottom of Loki's nightshirt, but stepped away to avoid Loki kicking him. Loki snarled at him as he rode out a contraction.

"Loki, I need to check." Bruce said. 

"Yeah, does he actually have a cunt?" One of the guards at the glass crowed, and Steve thumped the glass where his head was sat. The guard jerked away and Steve glared. Over his shoulder, Bucky was commencing in a staring contest with Rumlow, who was sneering at them.

Loki breathed in through his teeth and then turned his head, not looking at Bruce. Bruce took this as a sign of assent and brought up the nightshirt, getting Betty to hold it above Loki stomach.

"That's more of Loki than I ever wanted to see." Clint muttered and turned away with Tony. 

"Holy shit!" One of the men outside the box said. "He has a cunt and a cock!"

The men roared with laughter, and Loki turned ashen white and closed his eyes.

"Okay, Loki, I need you to open your legs." Bruce said. He rubbed a hand down Loki's leg, and Loki shuddered and then opened his legs slowly. 

"Jesus Christ." Bucky said under his breath. But both he and Steve leaned in close. They knew what to look for. When Steve's mother had been alive, and they had both been boys, Steve's ma had used them as assistants as she had gone about the neighbourhood, helping mothers through their own births when they could not go to a doctor. The mothers had not minded the two young boys helping, and in turn, Steve and Bucky had learned all there was to know about how to deliver baby's safely.

"Two centimetres." Steve muttered to Bucky, who nodded. Bruce finished his examination and confirmed what they thought.

"And that means...?" Clint said. Bruce stood up, and then stripped Loki of his nightshirt. Loki closed his eyes gratefully and ignored the jeers he got form the men outside the glass. He couldn't stand being dressed at that moment, and was so flushed that his chest was red.

"We'll be here for a few hours." Betty said. Natasha sat down and snapped a piece of ice off of the sculpture, putting it in her mouth and sucking.

Thor sat down as well and leaned against the glass, Loki crouching between his legs as he breathed deeply. The others settled on the floor, knowing that all they could do at the point was wait and hope that the others, Loki;s children or SHIELD got there before Loki's baby did.

 

 

*************

 

 

"Soldier."

Bucky snapped awake. He had been leaning against Steve's shoulder and sharing his body warmth when the whisper woke him up. He glanced to his side and saw that Loki was now standing again, leaning against Liesle as Thor took a brief power nap.

"Soldier."

Bucky turned his head slowly to his side. Rumlow was crouched down, staring at him with his unsettling black eyes. Bucky eyed him but did not speak.

"If you could do that," he nodded to where Loki was swaying, mouth pulled in a grimace, "you would have been pregnant so many times, the amount we fucked you."

Bucky jerked, waking Steve up and causing Natasha to grunt. Clint, Tony and Pepper were on sentry duty, and Betty was monitoring Loki. Bruce and Natasha had been napping.

"Of course, you wouldn't have been aloud to keep them." Rumlow continued. "The minute your belly started to ripen, you would have had the shit kicked out of you. It's not like we could allow to to have a baby."

"Don't listen to him Bucky." Steve said into his ear. Bucky nodded, but short of clamping his hands over his ears, he couldn't block out what Rumlow was saying. It was making him sick to his stomach, especially because he knew that Loki could hear, and that was exactly what happened to him with the Chitauri. So many babies, lost.

"Is that what you're calling yourself now? Bucky? Like you're actually that man who fell from the train, and not just some poor imitation of a dead man so you can appease the Captain and get into his bed and onto his cock?" Rumlow mocked, his face twisted with sick amusement. Bucky felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, but before he could move away, Steve gripped his hand tightly, forcing him to look at Steve's ernest face.

"You are Bucky." He said. "You are."

"Your Bucky is dead, Captain." Rumlow sneered. "He died when he fell from the train."

"Then in that case, Steve Rogers died when he put that plane into the ice." Steve said, standing up. Bucky remained seated, but cuddled up against Steve's leg, ignoring the fact that he probably looked ridiculous. "You change from the past, you learn and move on. I am not the Steve Rogers of 1944, I'm not the Steve Rogers of 2012, I'm not even the Steve Rogers of 2014. I am the Steve Rogers of now."

Rumlow bared his teeth at Steve, but didn't say anything. 

"Here here." Tony said, and despite the situation Steve laughed. He turned around and brought Bucky up by his hands, and together they both went to Loki. 

"I'll take him now." Steve said. Leslie threw him a grateful smile and she passed Loki over, settling down beside Thor and leaning her head back against the glass. She dropped off almost immediately.

Loki wrapped his arms around Steve's shoulders and laid his head against Steve's chest, sighing and closing his eyes. Bucky put his hand on Loki's lower back, and rubbed, causing Loki to groan and tense as a contraction came. They were now coming every two minutes by Bruce's calculation, and the last time he was examined, he was currently 4 centimetres dilated. 

Bucky leaned against Loki's back when the contraction finished, and they sandwiched Loki between them, keeping him safe and sheltering him from the men outside the glass. Bucky met Steve's eyes over Loki's head, and Steve gave him a reassuring smile, stroking Loki's hair when the man groaned again.

It had been 4 hours since they had entered the box, and help wasn't coming.

 

 

**********

 

 

6 hours later, it had been 10 hours, and Loki was only 6 centimetres dilated. He was currently crouching with Bruce behind him, holding him upright and counting his breaths for him. Thor was kneeling in front, holding Loki's hands and squeezing when Loki had a contraction. He was now crying out in pain, and even Clint was wincing when he heard Loki.

"It looks like bloody hard work." Tony said. He was gathering ice from the sculpture to give to Thor so he could feed Loki. It was now mid-morning, and everyone was feeling incredibly hungry. They were ignoring it, though, especially since the men outside of the box had gathered the contents of the communal fridge and were happily eating in front of them.

"It's called labour for a reason." Betty said. She was sitting with Pepper and Natasha, and currently playing an incredibly difficult game of chess with them, using pieces carved form ice by Natasha.

"Loki, legs open please." Bruce said. Loki ignored him.

"Loki, I need to see." 

Loki groaned in response and put his head to his chest. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

"Shit, he's pushing!" Bruce said and shoved Thor out of the way. Betty and Liesle, who was sitting with Clint, rushed over and gripped Loki's shoulders.

"He can't push now!" Steve said. He took over from Bruce when Bruce rushed in front of Loki. 

"Stop pushing, you've got to stop pushing!" Bruce said. But Loki ignored him.

Bruce gritted his teeth and then slapped Loki sharply in the face. Loki's head lurched to the side and he stopped pushing. 

The men outside of the box cheered and crowed.

Loki turned his head slowly and looked at Bruce with red eyes. He growled at him and his face started to turn blue.

"Loki, if you continued pushing you might have killed your baby." Bruce said. Loki's face stopped turning and instead he went ashen white again. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead he gulped and nodded slowly.

"You can only push when I say so."

Loki nodded once again, and then closed his eyes as another contraction hit.

"In, one-two-three, out one-two-three. In one-two-three, out one-two-three..." Bruce said, breathing with Loki.

 

 

**********

 

 

"I would have thought Loki was used to this." Natasha said. Clint was with her, as was Pepper. It was Tony's turn to be holding Loki up, and this time it was Bucky helping him breath. "He's had so many children."

"Of Loki's multiple children, he had only ever had two that were assisted. And one was by a horse." Liesle said, breaking off a bit of ice and putting it into her mouth.

"Ah."

14 hours.

 

 

*********

 

 

18 hours. 7 centimetres.

Loki was starting to sleep in between contractions, and despite themselves, the rest of the group was worrying. Loki was exhausted, and he was sweating profusely. 

Bruce was sleeping, in order to preserve his sanity, and had called upon the services of Steve, Bucky and Betty to administer to Loki and examine him when they needed to.

Bucky came over after the last examination and told the others in a low voice that Loki was starting bleed. Natasha was holding Loki up and swaying with him, but she heard. Loki was asleep, his ready hair touching her cheek as he moved his head with each breath. But he opened his eyes and started to cry when he felt his belly tighten. Natasha held him hard and started to cry with him. 

Thor ran a hand through his hair and looked sick. His powers could only do so much, and this was by far the longest about Loki had ever endured.

There was a prevalent fear that this might also be his last.

 

 

*********

 

 

26 hours after first entering the box, Betty leaned up from where she was crouching and looked at Loki. Loki was gritting his teeth at her, crouching between Liesle's legs.

"10 centimenters." She said quietly. 

The others either woke up or stopped whatever they were doing and looked over. They knew what 10 centimetres meant.

"Okay, Loki." She said. She out a hand on his knee and stroked the skin. "I want you to start pushing with the next contraction."

"PUSH, PUSH, PUSH!" The men outside the box chanted. They had been placing bets, out loud, as to when the thought Loki was going to die.

Loki breathed in deep, and with the next contraction, he pushed back his head, and screamed.

It was an awful, piercing sound, the most primal sound a person could make.

The others gritted their teeth, and as one, moved towards Loki. 

"And stop. Breath, breath." Betty said. She checked to see anything, and then gestured to Bucky to take her place. She wanted someone there who had actually delivered a baby, and knew what to look for. She went to Loki's shoulder.

"Annnnd, now!" Bucky said, and Loki bared down, groaning through gritted teeth.

By the end of half an hour, every member of the Avengers was touching Loki somewhere. Bucky was still crouched between Loki's legs, and after a long and drawn out contraction from Loki, Bucky made a sharp gasp.

"I can see the head." He said. There was a flurry of renewed excitement, despite the exhaustion. Bucky stood up and went to Thor, gesturing that he should take his place. 

"That's a wide smile." Tony said, sneaking a peak from his crouched position by Loki's knees. Pepper clipped him around the head.

"Loki, push now!" Thor said, and Loki heaved.

"C'mon, c'mon, not long now." Liesle said into Loki's ears, and Loki sobbed and cried out. But the contraction stopped, and everyone held their breath as Thor reached out a hand and cupped something.

"One more now." He said softly, in a strangled voice. Even the men outside of the glass box were silent.

Loki opened his eyes and looked at Thor, who merely smiled at him. Loki nodded his head, and with the next contraction, braced himself against Steve's legs and pushed with everything he had in him.

There was silence when the contraction finished, and everyone looked at Thor. Thor wasn't looking at them, however. His hands slowly came away from Loki, cupping something.

"Cry." Natasha whispered. "C'mon, cry!"

Then, there was a hiccuping sound, and a cry filled the air. It was a furious cry, one of pure anger and confusion. 

It was the most beautiful thing anyone had heard in a long time.

Thor brought his hands up, and cupped in the middle of them was the tiniest baby. It was purple, and covered in white, and it's head was oddly elongated. 

"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen." Clint said. His voice was soft with awe.

"It's a girl." Thor said. He brought the baby close to his body, and reached out a hand blindly for Loki's long discarded nightshirt. Bruce handed it to him, and Thor wrapped up the baby. "We have a little girl." His voice was chocked.

Loki sat back against Steve and released Betty's and Liesle's hands. He reached out his arms and gathered the baby close to his chest. Quickly and efficiently, Bruce cut the cord with some left over ice and Loki's grip on his baby tightened.

"What's the name you chose?" Pepper asked.

"Thrúd." Loki whispered. "Little Thrúd."

He passed the afterbirth almost as an afterthought, and Tony sacrificed his shirt to wrap it up in. Loki was only focused on his baby. Nothing else mattered to him.

The others' didn't have that luxury, because the men outside the glass had started to bang on it.

"Show us the baby!" One man yelled.

"Yeah, show us that precious little girl!"

"When we get ahold of her..." Rumlow said, and trailed off. His threat was enough and the Avengers closed ranks. But they were still trapped, and they were all exhausted, and they knew that if the men got in, it would be a bloodbath. 

But Loki eyed the men, and stood up. He swayed, and when Thor put a hand to his shoulders, he took the offer and leaned against his chest. But he held up the hand not holding his baby, and, smiling cruelly at the men, he snapped his fingers with a green spark.

"Oh." Natasha said softly. She started to grin, and when the others caught on, they started to grin too.

Loki had his magic back. He had just summoned his children and alerted SHIELD. 

It was a bloodbath, but for the men outside the glass. They were slaughtered when SHIELD came down on their head, and those that tried to run got caught up with Loki's children, who came dressed for a battle they rightly anticipated.

When all the men were dead, with the exception of Rumlow, Loki stepped regally out onto the blood soaked carpet. His baby cooed in his arms, and he looked with a smirk at the carnage surrounding him.

"How appropriate." He murmured to Thrúd. "To be bathed in blood."

"A strong beginning." Thor said, his hand on Loki's shoulder.

Rumlow knelt, and would have said something, but Sam Wilson, with a brilliant flying kick, had broken his jaw. He was kneeling with Hela's hand on his shoulder, shivering from the cold she emitted.

"Yours, I believe." Loki turned to Bucky and nodded his head. Bucky opened his mouth is surprise, but then closed it. He looked at Steve.

Steve nodded grimly. "No mercy from he. He doesn't deserve it."

Bucky tightened his jaw and walked slowly up to Rumlow. He crouched down and looked Rumlow in the eye. They stared at each other in silence for a long time, before Bucky breathed out slowly.

"I was a man, when you fucked me."

Rumlow tried to sneer, but Hela slapped him lightly upside the head. Liesle stood in Fenrir's arms, both smiling grimly.

"You tried to take the very essence of me." Bucky whispered. "But I only belong to one person, and I have done from my birth. You, whenever you passed me around like the party favour you tried to make me, tried to take my heart."

He suddenly reached out, and pulled Rumlow to his feet. Rumlow swayed, and started going pale.

"You tried to take my heart, when it was already taken. So, I shall have yours in return."

Rumlow opened his lips, but didn't much further than that. Bucky's left arm shot forward, with enough force and anger behind it to punch directly through the tack vest, through skin and bone, and directly into Rumlow's chest. Rumlow gurgled, and swayed, and blood started pouring from his mouth. He was held up only by Bucky's arm in his chest, and when Bucky gritted his teeth and wrenched his arm back, he fell to the floor. He died in minutes.

The heart in Bucky's palm still beat, but only for seconds before it stopped.

There was utter silence. No one dared to breathe. Bucky, after staring at Rumlow, opened his fingers and let the heart fall. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, hanging his head.

"Eww." Tony said. And people started to laugh.

 

 

***********

 

 

"Tickle her again." Sleipnir said. He was sitting by his mother in Loki's and Thor's bed, and was watching as Thor cradled his newest child. Thor grinned and tickled her feet, causing the baby to kick and coo.

"So cute." Jormungandr said. He was curled up around his mother, who was leaning back against the pillows. The door was open, and Nick Fury peered in to make sure everyone was still in there.

"No problems, I hope." Coulson said. He was sitting on the couch with a stiff whiskey, Pepper past out against his back. Steve snorted with exhausted laughter.

"Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. But no, aside from that, no problems." He said.

"My carpets are ruined." Tony whined, from where he was slouched on the floor. Hill, without even looking, slapped the back of his head. But it was weak, and Tony barely felt it.

"You can get new damn carpets. You have enough money." Nick said from the bar. Tony hummed but didn't reply.

"We need to get her registered." Hill reminded them. Everyone groaned at the thought of getting up.

"Not now." Bruce said, face buried in Betty's lap as she stared up at the ceiling, eyes glazed.

"Obviously not now." Hill snorted.

"But soon." Hela said. She was the only one not about to collapse. 

"Yeah." Bucky said. He turned his head to look into the room, and caught Loki's eye when he turned his head to look out. Loki gave him a weak smile and then closed his eyes, sinking into sleep. "Gotta make her official. The newest Avenger, Thrúd Lokisdottier."

**Author's Note:**

> Next Story Hint: Not really a story hint, but I shall be writing it at the same time as I shall be writing my first original piece of work. Chapter updates will be once a week, but if not, then you know why.
> 
> Loki deliberately doesn't talk until the very end, because I wanted to emphasise the pure physical endurance that childbirth is. There's a reason it's called labour, as Betty says.


End file.
